The present invention relates to a filling device for an syringe applicator which applies multiple fluid sealant components to a work surface and is particularly, although not exclusively, useful for applying tissue sealant components to biological tissue to effect hemostasis or achieve other therapeutic results. More particularly, it relates to a dual compartment enclosed direct filling device for a hand-held applicator.
The use of tissue sealants and other biological materials is an important emerging surgical technique, well adapted for the operating room or field environments such as the doctor""s office or mobile medical units. Preferred sealants include fibrin sealants which are formed from blood plasma components and comprise, on the one hand, a first component containing fibrinogen and Factor XIII and, on the other hand, a second component which usually includes thrombin, and calcium ions. The fibrinogen is capable of a polymerizing and being cross-linked to form a solid fibrin clot when the components are mixed. The necessary additional factors to simulate relevant portions of the natural blood coagulation cascade are suitably distributed between the fibrinogen and thrombin components.
Antanavich et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,007, whose disclosure and references are hereby incorporated herein by reference thereto, provides an extensive discussion of the literature relating to fibrinogen sealant preparation (column 1, line 20 to column 4, line 62) and applicators (column 4 line 62 to column 5, line 14), as well as a bibliography, (columns 6-10) and is a helpful guide to the teachings of prior workers in the field.
Depending upon the potency of the particular formulations employed, coagulation of the sealant may take place very rapidly, yielding a gel within perhaps 10 or 20 seconds. Though often very desirable for surgical reasons, such fast-acting properties present potential problems of fouling or clogging. These problems must be overcome in devising suitable applicators, methods of application, and devices suitable for filling said applicators.
A popular manually operable applicator for such two-component sealants employs a dual syringe construction wherein two syringes, connected by a yoke, each provide a reservoir for one of the components. In most prior devices, the sealant components are discharged in separate streams and mixed external of the applicator. Such applicators are similar in principle to household epoxy glue applicators commonly available in hardware stores.
Until May of 1998, when the FDA first approved such products, fibrin sealants were not commercially available in the US. Therefore, the use of fibrin sealants was limited to supplies produced within the clinic, which were not subject to FDA control.
Current methods of filling biological glue applicators can be complicated and time consuming. As taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,877, issued to Epstein, and in our assignee""s international application PCT/US98/07846, components of the sealant can be placed in separate compartments in a flat filler tray for transfer to an applicator. Though useful as a device to permit rapid and reliable filling of a dual syringe applicator at the point of use, such filler trays are not suitable for external storage of the sealant components. This process can be time consuming and it requires a significant degree of care to efficiently transfer the sealant to the applicator. Also, a small amount of sealant will be left in the tray, and it is thus wasted. Furthermore the transfer of sealant components to multiple storage containers raises the likelihood members in which the sealants will gather bio-burden, and bacteria, which can threaten the sterility of the sealant.
Following FDA approval, however, fibrin sealants are now commercially available in the US. This availability has created a need for an effective and efficient device useful for transferring the components of the sealant, from commercially available or standardized, container-like storage containers, into an applicator.
There is accordingly a need for a device which can effectively deliver, in a sterile environment, multiple sealant components directly from their storage containers to a syringe applicator.
The present invention solves the problem of effectively delivering multiple sealant components directly from commercially available or standardized storage containers, for example, containers, to an applicator while allowing the use of the entire fill device within a sterile field.
In one aspect, the invention provides a direct dual filling device for multiple sealant components of a liquid sealant, at least two of the components being complementary one to the other and capable of polymerizing when mixed. The direct dual filling device comprises a body having a plurality of inlet ports connected to drawing tubes which pierce the protective covering of commercially available containers, the containers containing the sealant components. The device also includes a housing member which sealably mounts onto a base, thereby enclosing the containers within the structure and allowing the device to be brought into a sterile field. The housing member and slanted container supports hold the containers in a tilted position within the receiving aperture. This feature allows the drawing tubes to extract virtually all of the fluid contained within the containers. The device can be attached to a syringe applicator with keying such that when the plunger of the syringe applicator is retracted, fluid is drawn from each respective container to the proper reservoir contained within the syringe applicator.
The invention enables multiple sealant components to be directly delivered from their commercially available containers into a syringe applicator without significant risk of contamination of the sealant components, while minimizing waste of the sealant components. The different sealant components are delivered directly from their containers into separate individual reservoirs within the syringe applicator, thereby preventing coagulation of the sealant components. Once the housing member of the device is guided onto the containers and mounted onto the base, the entire device can be brought into the sterile environment.